Do you think that you should be on the TV show "House" and think, "hey, I need that doctor!" Well, this is the blog for you. Topics and links such as Fibromyalgia, PCOS, CFS, Autism, and various cancer's.

Meet The Contributors

Mandy ~ I am a stay at home mom who has been on a medical roller coaster ride going from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what is wrong with me. All of the doctors agreed that there is something medically wrong with me, they just don't know what... Basically, just about every time that I go to the doctor, I wind up with a new diagnosis. It is very frustrating. I hope that some of these links will maybe help you or lead you in the right direction.

Ferd ~ I have had the honor and pleasure of practicing Internal Medicine for over 25 years. I am now enjoying sharing my thoughts and experience in the blogosphere in a number of ways. I am grateful to Mandy for including me on her excellent blog, Texas Medical Freak!

Friday, February 1, 2008

What’s the deal with stem cells anyway? Stem cells are special body cells that have the potential to become one of many different types of organs or tissues, such as bone, heart, or brain and spinal cord. This is a very exciting area of research in the field of medicine. It is possible that stem cells could be used to repair injuries to the body, or to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, heart disease, diabetes, and countless other problems.

Stem cells have been identified in their natural state, and very recently, they have been created by modifying genes in normal adult skin cells. Stem cells from different sources vary in their ability to transform into other tissues. The ones with the most potential are gotten from very young embryos, 3 to 5 days old. At this stage of development, the embryo is composed of about 150 cells, each of which has the ability to become any part of the body. But the fact that this is a developing human life raises moral and ethical questions about the use of embryos for research purposes. People are divided about 50 - 50 in this regard. In general, people who favor abortion also favor the use of embryos in stem cell research, while those opposed to abortion are more respectful of their humanity. Because of the great potential for stem cells to be useful treatments, these moral and ethical questions will have to be addressed by us as a society.

Other sources of stem cells besides human embryos include umbilical cord blood, amniotic fluid, and a few are found in normal adult tissues. And as I mentioned before, researchers late last year were able to create stem cells from adult skin cells by modifying their genes. This is very exciting because it avoids the ethical questions about experimenting on developing human life.

As you can see, all of this holds great promise, and the field is just getting started. In the future we might be able to regenerate tissues that have been injured or diseased. We might be able to clone organs for transplantation. Regenerated or replaced tissues and organs would cure diseases and restore normal function.

In the next installment, I will focus on the current state of the art of stem cell research in the area of Parkinson’s disease. Stay tuned.